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Developer Is Accused of Fleecing Clients and Friends

A man who once was one of the city’s high-flying real estate moguls was arrested Monday morning on charges that he stole $2.5 million from business associates and friends, including the best man at his wedding, by fooling them into believing he was making deals to buy hotel properties in upstate New York and Colorado.

The man, Adam C. Hochfelder, 38, a developer and landlord who at his peak claimed to own $2.7 billion in New York skyscrapers, turned himself in and was arraigned this morning in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on 31 counts of grand larceny, identity theft and scheming to defraud investors.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said that starting in August 2007, Mr. Hochfelder tricked friends and investors into giving him money for shares of the Sagamore Hotel on Lake George and the Peaks Resort in Telluride, Colo. Mr. Hochfelder led them to believe he was in the process of buying the properties even after negotiations fell through, prosecutors said.

Tanya Apparicio, an assistant district attorney, said at the arraignment that Mr. Hochfelder used the money to pay his rent, his escalating legal bills, trips on a private jet and private school tuition for his sons. He even tried to forge e-mail messages by investors to release their investments from escrow accounts so he could spend the money, Ms. Apparicio said.

During the time that Mr. Hochfelder had been meeting with officials from the district attorney’s office over these earlier charges, Ms. Apparicio said that he was given “the opportunity to come clean” and admit his additional crimes. But he never did.

“The facts of this case speak volumes about the defendant’s character,” she said. “He did it with an outstanding level of arrogance and entitlement.”

After the hearing, a lawyer for Mr. Hochfelder, Marc Agnifilo, drew a distinction between the large living described in the hearing and the way that Mr. Hochfelder lives today. He said that Mr. Hochfelder’s father largely coverd his expenses and that he suspected that the father paid for the schooling of Mr. Hochfelder’s children.

“His father is helping with financing every aspect of his life,” Mr. Agnifilo said. “The Adam Hochfelder of today is really a broke Adam Hochfelder.”

This usually happens when one generation never really worked with their hands, and they thought they were to big to drink a glass of tea with their family , but rushed to eat on Madison Avenue, Sounds like a con artist that had a good education and came from a good family. Lucky he has a good lawyer, will now have to face restitution and jail time. The interesting element to this story that he is not apologizing and trying to rectify his mistakes with his clients and investors. He should learn how to write and publish a novel about his life , and maybe there is someone who would be to figure out why he never learned to play Poker, and to fold his hand instead of trying to cheat.

He like Madoff and hils ilk should spend the rest of his days in a cold dark cell. Good Riddance to you Mr. Hochfelder. Try earming an honest dollar if you know how to.Perhaps they can put you to work in the prison kitchen.

There was probably some Colorado attorney misconduct involved with Adam Hochfelder. I saw a statement by Mr. Holder that Colorado is a big area for Madoff victims and it seems like developers in Colorado and their agents had an orgy of crime and fraudulent misrepresentations.

The whole story is not out. I was in court and know first hand that all of his victims support him and do not want him in jail. The DA doesnt share that with the press. I think the DA was a rape crime prosecutor and switched to financial crimes and Adam Hochfelder is her first case. the victims know the true story and told the judge not to send him away

The DA has been after Mr. Hochfelder for some time. Those in the real estate industry have been aware of his ‘problems’ for several years.

It is remarkable that in an industry where architects, and even brokers are licensed and required to meet a series of minimum requirements including extensive training in what constitutes housing discrimination, and where appraisers are similarly licensed, developers have no licensing requirements or system of vetting whatsoever.

The argument that developers ‘live and die’ by their ‘reputations’ falls apart at the doorway of their public relations firm in a city where reputations are manufactured with money. Moreover, many LLC’s are opaque as to the backgrounds of their participants, or the histories of the previous endeavors with which they have been associated.

This article is misleading as questions regarding Mr. Hochfelder were being raised by Morgy’s office six years ago in 2004, when he became, ‘of interest’ by possibly taking out personal loans on corporate securities held in common. The more recent interest in 2007, three years after, “as charged in the indictment and described in court documents, – . . . , HOCHFELDER represented to investors that he was under contract to buy the Sagamore Hotel, and that they could purchase a part of his equity in the deal. In reality, HOCHFELDER had no equity in the hotel, and although he had once been the high bidder for the Sagamore, his contract to purchase the hotel had expired without HOCHFELDER completing the deal for lack of financing. Knowing this, HOCHFELDER continued to solicit and receive more than $500,000 from investors. According to court papers, HOCHFELDER told some investors that their money would be held in escrow pending the closing of the deal and assured them that if the deal did not close, their money would be returned. The money HOCHFELDER illegally obtained from his investors never went to the purchase of the Sagamore Hotel at all, but instead HOCHFELDER used the funds to pay his personal expenses including outstanding legal bills, overdue creditors, a personal driver, and trips on a private jet.”

He is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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